Each year many fisherman lose valuable fishing rods when the fishing rods are accidentally dropped into a body of water or are pulled into the body of water by a fish. It would be a benefit, therefore, to have a flotation device that could be secured to the fishing rod without interfering with the operation of the fishing rod and that would provide sufficient buoyancy to the fishing rod to maintain at least a portion of the fishing rod at or near the surface of a body of water. It would also be a benefit to have a method for increasing the buoyancy of a fishing rod that allowed a user to provide increased buoyancy to a fishing rod to prevent loss of the fishing rod should the fishing rod be dropped or pulled into a body of water.